Hooray for Bitcoin (but Don’t Buy It)

The price reached $19,000 last week. It is certain to hit zero.

The price of bitcoin broke $19,000 last week, and traders and speculators are giddy. Fortunes are being made. But in the long run, the smart bet is against bitcoin, for at least four reasons.

First, bitcoin is too volatile to be a reliable store of value. National currencies rest on the real productivity and fiscal capacity of citizens. With bitcoin there is no there there—only some kind of euphoric trust. But this trust is undermined by hackers who have breached bitcoin repositories.